Justice Stevens' Antitrust Legacy

This article, written for the Summer 2010 edition of ABA’s Antitrust, discusses the legacy of recently retired Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens.  After noting that Justice Stevens was a prominent antitrust practitioner, lecturer and author before he was even a judge, the article focuses on nine of his majority opinions during his time on the Supreme Court Bench. These important decisions have collectively: established critical foundations for today’s law of horizontal restraints; transformed the law on tying arrangements; set what may now be the single most important monopolization precedent for antitrust plaintiffs; and set one of the most significant antitrust standing precedents for antitrust defendants. They also comment on his most recent dissenting opinions, in Volvo17 and Twombly.  Although he defied characterization as either uniformly pro-plaintiff or uniformly pro-defendant, the authors emphasize that it would be “a mistake … to view Justice Stevens as an indifferent or “nonpartisan” participant in the long running debate over the direction of antitrust law.” They conclude that the most important feature of his antitrust legacy is the “sophisticated and practical approach to analysis of the issues at hand” that he brought to all of his opinions for the majority.  He left the lasting impression of a “Justice who cares deeply about the efficacy of the antitrust laws.”